A German couple had their van broken into within minutes of arriving in Whangarei and 11 months of irreplaceable photographs of their trip to New Zealand stolen.
Sven Stemme and Susan Morawski had only been in town for a few minutes on Friday when they parked outside the Mad Butcher in Walton St about 12.50pm to walk to the Town Basin to buy some pounamu as a memento of their wonderful time in the country.
But when they returned about 15 minutes later, their silver Toyota Liteace van had been broken into and their possessions rifled through and much stolen, including their plane tickets, toiletries and a bag.
Mr Stemme said the thieves also took a Lenovo laptop, hard drive and Nikon D3100 camera that contained all the images of their visit since arriving here last November.
Their passports were not taken so they can leave the country as planned on October 4.